When times are hard, do we really want to sacrifice our love of eating out, or would we rather just economise? Personally, I fall into the latter category. Of course I still want to eat out, even if I can’t afford to do it as often as I’d like, or have to avoid the more expensive options.
If you like a bottle of wine with your meal, as many of us do, you’ll undoubtedly be paying over the odds, and no doubt you’ll resent it. Chris on The Weekly Gripe website has recently claimed that the wine mark-up in UK restaurants used to be around three times retail price, but is increasingly four or five times, meaning that we are paying over the odds by quite a significant amount.
So, what are our options? We can begrudgingly pay a small fortune for a bottle of cheap wine. We can stick to soft drinks – or even tap water – if we’re feeling skint. Or we can venture down to one of Bristol’s “bring your own” (BYO) restaurants and save ourselves a bit of money.
The BYO concept has been around for a while, but has historically tended to be confined to Thai restaurants and curry houses. However, it appears that more and more restaurants are getting in on the act and not only saving their customers some money, but also giving them a wider range of drink options in the process.
We’ve attempted to list some of Bristol’s BYO venues below – if you know of any more or have comments on any of those that we’ve listed, let us know!
BS1
Courtyard Restaurant, 20 Lower Park Row (Noodles)
Sergio’s, 1-4 Frogmore Street (Italian)
BS3
Al’s Tikka Grill, 33 Ashton Road (Indian)
Il Grano, 149 East Street (Italian)
BS4
A Cappella, 184C Wells Road, Knowle (Pizza)
Assilah Bistro, 194-196 Wells Road, Totterdown (Moroccan)
BS5
Eastern Taste, 94 St Mark’s Rd (Indian)
Kashmir Restaurant, 15 High Street (Indian)
BS6
La Voglia, 130 Cheltenham Road (Italian)
Thai Pepper, 215 Cheltenham Road (Thai)
BS7
Simply Thai, 67 Gloucester Road (Thai)
Dev’s Kerala, 180 Gloucester Road (Indian)
BS8
Il Rustico, 133 Hotwells Road (Italian)
The Muset by Ronnie, 12 – 16 Clifton Rd (British) – BYO at the Chef’s Table only
BS9
The Villager, 35/36 Church Road (modern European)
BS16
Shadin, 70 Broad Street (Indian)
Honestly speaking,I've never been in any of those place posted above..But every time I am stress I always go to my fave restaurant!!Because I believe that eating takes away my stress and helps me relax!!!But I am really interested visiting anyone of the places or restaurant above..I will make a plan for that one..Nice idea isn't it?
I've been to Le Muset a few times and its a great restaurant. It certainly makes it a more enjoyable treat to not pay through the nose for wine that often isn't as nice as that which I could pick off a shelf myself.
A couple more to add in BS5 are the Thali Cafe on St Marks Road and the Mango Tree in St George- both serve Indian food.
[…] is blessed with a generous number of BYO restaurants. Luckily for me, they tie in with being some of my favourite places to eat in the city. Here are my […]